OVERVIEW
This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is Tourette disorder. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how Tourette disorder will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a tradition question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.
QUESTION EXAMPLES
Question # 1
An 9 yer old boy is brought to the clinic because of a 2 year history of increasingly frequent episodes of eye blinking and facial frowning. These behaviors have become so frequent that they now occur multiple times a day. He also often makes grunting noises, and when these occur during class his teacher sends him out of the room for being disruptive. The child explains that he will often shrug one of his shoulders, and tries to hide this behavior by smoothing his hair. He is embarrassed by his behaviors, and is able to suppress them for short periods of time, but they will often return when he is distracted. He also explains that his behaviors increase in frequency when he is stressed. His mother explains that these behaviors do not seem to occur when he is sleeping. He has no notable past medical history, and is not taking any medications. During the physical exam the patient experiences a few episodes of rapid eye liking, and also forceful grunting. His physical exam shows no other abnormalities. Mental status exam reveals a mildly anxious patient. What is this patient’s most likely diagnosis?
Page Updated: 09.18.2016